Percentages | Version Histories | Attendance | Withdrawals | AI and Plagiarism
AI cannot help you in this class — it can only hurt your grade. Every semester, I get a couple students who think "I missed so much class, and I need an amazing paper . . . so I'll use AI to bring up my grade." And then they get caught, and then I have no choice but to give a failing grade. I cannot guarantee that I can catch all AI, but I can guarantee that I will only grade your paper if I have proof that you personally wrote it. What is that proof? The version histories required with every assignment. And the in-class activities where you describe your work. If you can't describe your research and you don't have a version history for your paper, you'll get a zero.
Following this policy:
Google Docs spellcheck and grammar suggestions are okay to use — they don't alter your writing style.
You MUST cite your sources whenever you provide outside information or quotes in your paper. You need to show where your information came from — either tell us the author of your source, or tell us when you personally experienced what you're describing.
Do NOT use any AI platform to organize, outline, compose, or edit your writing assignments. You are required to do your own thinking, organizing, and drafting.
Do NOT use Grammarly, Gemini, Copilot, or similar platforms to revise your writing for this course. I want to see how you write so I can offer effective feedback. Please note that I do not take off any points for grammar or spelling or typos. Also, materials that have been revised by these AI-powered editors can easily be mistaken for text that's been composed by AI text — and that will look like plagiarism.
Do NOT let other people edit your writing for you. It's perfectly okay to have someone read over your paper and provided suggestions, but you must make any changes yourself.
Do NOT reuse papers for multiple courses. If you write a paper for one class and then submit the same work for another class, then you're plagiarizing yourself.
It's more than simply a grade. If you rely on AI or other people to do your writing for you, then you won't learn to think and communicate for yourself.
Critical Thinking: Doing your own work matters.
Version Histories: I use version histories in Google Docs to ensure that each student is writing their own work.
AI and Plagarism Penalties: Turning in AI or other plagiarized materials will result in a zero on an assignment, and can also lead to a reduction in the final course grade and report to Student Affairs.
Grammarly vs. ChatGPT: You do not need Grammarly to pass my course — and using Grammarly can give a false positive for AI plagiarism.